The PPAI North American Leadership Conference delves into the most relevant, top-of-mind business issues and ideas impacting the promotional products industry with an emphasis on networking events, leadership development, strategic foresight, emerging business issues, trends and best practices.

PPAI’s 2nd annual SPARK conference for young professionals in the promotional products industry was a hands-down success in Nashville, Tennessee. Held July 19-20 at the Sheraton Grand Nashville Downtown, SPARK offered education and networking opportunities for more than 70 industry practitioners who are at the beginning stages of their careers in the promotional products industry.

The annual event, now in its 14th year, drew 155 attendees, including 63 first-timers, to the Loews Hollywood Hotel for the promotional products industry’s leading women’s conference. WLC has historically drawn a cross section of the industry with professionals at every level from suppliers, distributors and business services companies, and this year’s conference was no exception.

Over its three days, the show, which began on Monday, featured a full education schedule both on and off the show floor, an active trade show with almost 400 booths and several networking opportunities.

PPAI L.E.A.D. 2018 was held May 16-17, 2018, PPAI members and staff met with senators, congressional representatives and their legislative staffs on Capitol Hill to discuss legislation and issues relevant to the promotional products industry.

Thank you for participating in Promotional Products Work! Week 2018. Held May 14-18 this year, the event promoted the effectiveness of promotional products and detailed the reasons why working with a qualified promotional products professional to design, source and produce products is essential to any marketing campaign.

The industry's largest tradeshow providing the opportunity to see thousands of promotional products and more than 1,300 exhibitors.

The 17th annual Leadership Development Workshop (LDW) took place October 16-19 in Grapevine, Texas. Hosted by PPAI and the Regional Association Council (RAC), the four-day event began Monday with a PPAI Board of Directors meeting and continues today with a full-day training and planning session for PPAI committee and advisory group chairs. LDW continued Wednesday and Thursday with an extensive curriculum designed to provide regional association leadership with numerous learning opportunities through general sessions, breakout discussions and idea-sharing activities.

The PPAI Product Responsibility Summit offered two full days of education focused on the most-pressing business implications, challenges and opportunities associated with compliance. Facilitated by industry thought leaders, representatives from product safety labs and leaders in compliance, this eye-opening event will explore the latest developments, as well as best practices.

In Austin, Texas, the fourth annual PPAI Technology Summit presented two days of in-depth, diverse discussion on the issues, challenges and opportunities top-of-mind among industry technology professionals. Running August 16-17, for the third year in a row Tech Summit was held immediately following the North American Leadership Conference (NALC), which ended August 15.

This year’s PPAI North American Leadership Conference brought an impressive and influential group of industry business leaders, owners and executives from many of the top companies in the industry together this week for insightful education, information sharing, networking and, of course, a little live music in the Live Music Capital of the World—Austin, Texas. The conference, held at the Four Seasons Hotel in the heart of the city, opened with a reception and dinner on Sunday night; two full days of educational programming followed.